Pages

Juggling all the aspects of my life with some baking, writing and good old fashioned ranting thrown in

Sunday, 12 February 2012

The Dreaded Half Term

Half Term used to be great. It meant no school, maybe a holiday, meeting up with friends and generally having lots of fun. Now the news that its Half Term just fills me with dread. Because now it means no playgroups and that anywhere else I can take the little monster for a bit of sociable fun is utterly packed with much larger children and if you fill a room with room with children, they're bound to bash into each other occasionally. If a five year old bashes into my two year old, she'll be squished. It's nobody's fault, it's just simple physics.

I've managed to arrange a playdate at my house on Friday. Now I'm desperately trying to arrange another meet up for some time earlier in the week. Many might ask why I don't just enjoy a quiet week with my little girl. And of course I'm planning some nice arty activities and maybe even some very simply baking. But unless she's regularly set loose in a large space with others of her age, my little girl quickly becomes bored and mischief ensues. We didn't go to our usual playgroup on Friday and, since then, she's worked out that she can turn off the monitor at night so that we don't know when she gets out of bed. I'm certain that there's a connection. If she's kept occupied, she doesn't have time to work things out.

Many child-centred places organise special events and activities for children during half term. But none of these are ever appropriate for pre-school children, it seems. They are all for the children who would usually be at school. And fair enough, they deserve some fun during their time off. But what on earth am I supposed to do with my non-school attending child who isn't having time off?

This has actually reminded me of another subject that I wanted to blog about: home educating. We have been vaguely considering the idea of home schooling pretty much since our daughter's birth. It began because we weren't too keen on the schools in our old neighbourhood. Now that we've moved, there are a few good schools. But we still find ourselves questioning just how good they are. Could our child gain from us teaching her, rather than leaving it to the professionals? I would really love to hear from anyone that has any amount of experience on this subject.

2 comments:

I dread half term too, I rely on my toddler groups to get me out of the house!

I don't have any experience about home educating, but I know that there is a lot of information out there. I do quite fancy the idea of it sometimes, especially as school approaches for my oldest, but I don't think that I have the confidence, especially not beyond primary school age.

If we did home educate, I think it would just be for Primary School, as that's the time when I think it's better to learn by doing. Plus I don't think I'd be confident enough to teach her to Secondary school level either.